MADEIRA, Portugal – COUNTRIES struggling to maintain their participation in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) activities, due to fiscal tightness, are set to receive financial aid from the international body.
According to Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), a number of countries have expressed much concern about the cost burdens related to activities of the IWC. In fact, in most cases, the economic crisis has exacerbated the situation, affecting the ability of a number of country representatives to attend meetings outside the region.
The Commission’s Chairman, William Hogarth, said it is important to support the need for financial help for these countries and pledged that the Commission would provide accordingly.
“We recognise the burden of the costs on Caribbean countries, indeed on all the Member States that are developing countries so they [can] participate in the deliberations that are ongoing about the future of the IWC,” Hogarth said.
The report listed the benefiting countries which include Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as to a number of Central and South American Member States. Also, Member States from Africa and the Pacific will receive funding to allow them to actively participate in the activities of the Revised Management Procedure (RMP), a working group that oversees the resumption of limited and tightly controlled whaling.
Countries would thereafter be able to have representation at the RMP levels and continue to promote sustainable use of the world’s marine resources, including whales.
